Abstract: The present invention concerns peptides and nucleic acids encoding the peptides, and their use for modulating large conductance Ca2+ activated K+ (BK) channel activity in cells; for treating conditions such as presbycusis (age-related hearing loss), audiogenic seizures, alcohol addiction, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease; and for delivering a cargo moiety to the brain of a subject through the blood-brain barrier.

Abstract: A permeameter apparatus and method of measuring hydraulic permeability of porous samples, that includes multiple tube manometers stacked vertically at equal intervals on the same side wall of a compression cell containing the sample. The levels of the water menisci in the stacked manometers characterize the temporal and spatial profile of hydraulic conductivity, which can be measured in the constant and falling head regimes in the same apparatus. The apparatus is enabled with a sample compression system imitating the geostatic pressure profiles at different depths of the sample extraction. The apparatus and method allow measurement of time-dependent hydraulic conductivity in anisotropic media at variable pressures.

Abstract: Among other things, a reconfigurable antenna array (RAA) includes individual pattern reconfigurable antennas (PRA). Each of the PRAs has (a) an antenna, (b) components controllable to generate and effect any of two or more modes of the PRA, the modes having respectively different steered radiation patterns, and (c) inputs to receive drive signals for the antenna and control signals for the controllable components. Control circuitry has outputs coupled to the inputs of the PRAs to drive the antennas of the PRAs to form an array beam having an array peak in a particular direction and at the same time to deliver control signals for the controllable components to effect a selected mode of each of the PRAs for which the steered radiation pattern has a peak in the particular direction of the array beam and has one or more nulls in the directions of one or more of the side-lobes of the array beam.

Abstract: Disclosed are systems, methods, and structures for DSP-free coherent receiver architectures applicable for short-reach optical links. Operationally, a received optical signal is down-converted by mixing it with a local oscillator (LO) laser signal using a 90-degree hybrid followed by balanced photodiodes. Other receiver functions are performed using analog signal processing thereby avoiding power-hungry, high-speed analog-to-digital converters and high-speed digital signal processing. Carrier phase recovery is performed by an electrical phase-locked loop employing a multiplier-free phase estimator stage that—while designed for quaternary phase-shift keying signals—may be employed in designs exhibiting higher modulation formats. Since carrier phase recovery is performed in the electrical domain, LO laser frequency modulation or LO laser integration is not employed.

Abstract: Disclosed is a marker for observing an effect of a compound or a drug on cells in real time. The marker is: 1) an amino acid sequence shown in SEQ No. 1 and/or SEQ No. 2; or 2) an amino acid sequence having a function for observing an effect of a compound or a drug on cells in real time and having at least more than 80%, preferably more than 85%, more preferably 90%, further preferably 95%, and most preferably 99% homology with the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ No. 1 and/or SEQ No. 2. Also disclosed is a method and a kit for observing an effect of a compound or a drug on cells in real time and use thereof.

Abstract: The present subject matter relates to orthotic devices, systems, and methods configured to support a lumbar spine. In some embodiments, a lumbar spinal orthosis system includes a torso belt configured to be secured about a torso of a user, a pelvic belt configured to be secured about a pelvis of the user, and a distractive force mechanism connected between the torso belt and the pelvic belt. The distractive force mechanism is configured to generate a force between the torso belt and the pelvic belt acting bi-directionally across a lumbar spine of the user to substantially offload bodyweight of the user passing through the lumbar spine.

Abstract: Disclosed is a technique for quickly removing and correcting a cone-beam artifact generated in a computed tomography (CT) image in consideration of bone and soft tissue regions when using a large-area X-ray detector in order to reduce a CT imaging time for large volumes in a cone-beam CT system. An apparatus includes an input unit configured to receive a start image including a cone-beam artifact, a computation unit configured to separate a high-density material image and a low-density material image from the start image received by the input unit, generate a reproduced image in which the cone-beam artifact is reproduced using the low-density material image, execute a correction process for subtracting the reproduced image from the start image to generate a corrected image, and iterate the correction process using the corrected image as a start image; and an output unit configured to output a final corrected image generated.

Abstract: Described herein are assays, methods, and devices for diagnosing/prognosing Alzheimer's disease (AD) and/or a neurodegenerative disease in a subject. The assays, methods, and/or devices described herein can be configured to detect GAS5 long-coding RNAs and/or expression thereof in a sample from a subject.

Abstract: A permanent magnet may include a Fe16N2 phase in a strained state. In some examples, strain may be preserved within the permanent magnet by a technique that includes etching an iron nitride-containing workpiece including Fe16N2 to introduce texture, straining the workpiece, and annealing the workpiece. In some examples, strain may be preserved within the permanent magnet by a technique that includes applying at a first temperature a layer of material to an iron nitride-containing workpiece including Fe16N2, and bringing the layer of material and the iron nitride-containing workpiece to a second temperature, where the material has a different coefficient of thermal expansion than the iron nitride-containing workpiece. A permanent magnet including an Fe16N2 phase with preserved strain also is disclosed.

Abstract: Provided are a method and apparatus for performing wireless communication through channel state prediction using a local dynamic map. The method may include (a) receiving probe node data (PND) of a base station node and a mobile node, (b) generating local dynamic map (LDM) information including communication network information between the base station node and the mobile node using the probe node data, and (c) transmitting the LDM information to the base station node and the mobile node, wherein the LDM information may be used to select a transmission beam of the base station node and a reception beam of the mobile node corresponding to the transmission beam or a reception beam of the base station node and a transmission beam of the mobile node corresponding to the reception beam.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to a method of determining a gaze distance, the method including obtaining a plurality of images by capturing each of both eyes of a user, determining, from each of the plurality of images, a corner point located at an edge of the eye, a location of a pupil, and an eye contour, determining each of gaze directions of both of the eyes based on a difference between a reference point and the location of the pupil, wherein the reference point is determined based on the eye contour and a location of the corner point, and determining a gaze distance based on a difference between the gaze directions of both of the eyes.

Abstract: Disclosed is a drying-wetting separated filling method and a filling apparatus for an electrowetting display device. The filling method comprises filling a non-polar solution into pixel grids on a lower substrate of an electrowetting display device in air, and filling a polar solution to immediately cover the non-polar solution filled after filling the non-polar solution into the pixel grids. Compared with filling the non-polar solution into the polar solution, directly filling the non-polar solution in air has better filling uniformity, easier operation and control. With the method, the fillings of the polar solution and the non-polar solution are easy, having a higher filling efficiency, and no air bubble residue.

Abstract: Aspects of the invention include host cells that are engineered to produce benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIAs). The host cells include heterologous coding sequences for a variety of enzymes involved in synthetic pathways from starting compounds to BIAs of the host cell. Also provided are methods of producing the BIAs of interest by culturing the host cells under culture conditions that promote expression of enzymes encoded by the heterologous coding sequences of the host cells. Aspects of the invention further include compositions, e.g., host cells, starting compounds and kits, etc., that find use in methods of the invention.

Abstract: The disclosure provides an experimental calibration method of a redundant inertial measurement unit including, step (1), establishing an installation angle model using a cone descriptive scheme, and obtaining a relationship of an angular speed of a carrier and an angular speed measured by each gyroscope, step (2), establishing a standard calibration model of the redundant inertial measurement unit based on a relationship between a sensor coordinate system and a carrier coordinate system, step (3), establishing a state equation and a measurement equation of a filter, step (4), performing a row amplification of measurement amounts based on the measurement equation established in step (3), and obtaining an amplificated measurement equation for improving observability, and step (5), obtaining a Jacobi matrix and a Hessian matrix based on the amplificated measurement equation, and estimating error parameters by an extended Kalman filtering algorithm based on a second-order Taylor expansion.

Abstract: The present invention provides a nanocomposite hydrogel and a preparation method thereof, and relates to the field of nanocomposite materials. The nanocomposite hydrogel is prepared by mixing completely gelatinized short amylose with an aqueous gelatin solution having a mass concentration of 8%-14%, and then cooling. The present invention utilizes the nanoparticles formed by in-situ self-assembly of the short amylose in the aqueous gelatin solution as a reinforcing agent, and the nanoparticles are uniformly distributed in the hydrogel to form a stable crystallization system, such that the prepared nanocomposite hydrogel exhibits optimal mechanical properties in terms of viscoelasticity, hardness, compressive stress, etc. The preparation process of the present invention is green and environmentally friendly, simple and efficient, and can be widely applied to the fields of food, cosmetics and medicine.

Abstract: A field emission neutralizer is provided. The field emission neutralizer includes a bottom plate and a field emission cathode unit located on the bottom plate. The field emission cathode unit includes a substrate, a shell located on the substrate, a cathode emitter located inside the shell, a mesh grid insulated from the cathode emitter, and a shielding layer insulated from the mesh grid. The cathode emitter includes a cathode substrate and a graphitized carbon nanotube array. The graphitized carbon nanotube array is in electrical contact with the cathode substrate. The graphitized carbon nanotube array is fixed on a surface of the substrate body, and the carbon nanotubes of the graphitized carbon nanotube array are substantially perpendicular to the cathode substrate.

Abstract: The present disclosure discloses a method for preparing short-clustered dextrin, and belongs to the field of bio-modified starch. The method includes: collaboratively modifying to-be-modified starch by adopting Ro-GBE and Gt-GBE. The present disclosure utilizes two starch branching enzymes from different microorganism sources to collaboratively modify corn starch. The Ro-GBE is firstly added for pretreatment, then the Gt-GBE is added. The Ro-GBE catalyzes the to-be-modified starch to form a chain segment structure which is more conducive to further utilization for the Gt-GBE, thin and long starch molecule is transformed into short-clustered structure under the catalysis of Gt-GBE, and thus the slow digestibility of modified products is more obvious.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to methods and related systems for precision crop modeling and management using the same. Precision crop modeling and management can be incorporated into various methods for growing plants such as crop plants and various methods for managing the growth of such plants in a particular field. The methods generally utilize in-season information relating to weather conditions actually experienced by the field to prepare mid-season, updated crop management plans. A crop management plan is determined using a crop model incorporating a variety of inputs and plant-specific material and energy balances to specify one or more grower-controlled management parameters. An updated plan for a given field can be followed by a grower to increase crop yield and/or optimize one or more other crop or field parameters.

Abstract: The present invention discloses a sketch-based shape maintaining tree transformation animation method, comprising: creating a three-dimensional tree model; representing the three-dimensional tree model in the form of a skeleton and a cluster of leaves; selecting an angle of interest, detecting the step (2) canopy silhouette of the 3D tree model, and the transformation animation target canopy silhouette is drawn on the sketch, and the crown silhouette of the 3D tree model is gradually transformed into a transformation animation target crown silhouette, and the crown of the 3D tree model is the transformation of the silhouette is transmitted to the branches to obtain a smooth transformation process of the trees; the transformation process of the crown silhouette and the branches is recorded frame by frame, and the tree transformation animation of the shape is obtained.

Abstract: A carbon material that is compact and exhibits an excellent hydrogen storage capacity. A carbon material has a specific surface area of 200 m2/g or less and exhibits a hydrogen storage capacity of 1.5×10?5 g/m2 or more at a hydrogen pressure of 10 MPa.